Women workers in Bogotá´s Informal sector: Gendered impact of structural adjustment Policies in the 1990s

In 1990, Colombia started an intense process of structural adjustment policies, which included most of the recommendations of the Washington Consensus. Economic and institutional modernization, internationalization of the economy, flexibilization of the labor market and incorporation of private enterprises for the provision of social security services were the main objectives of this political agenda. Looking at the particular case of Bogotá, this paper surveys how the situation of female informal workers has changed after ten years of structural reforms in Colombia. It argues the case of Bogotá provides evidence in line with the hypothesis that, following the logic of keeping wages low and ensuring a flexible labor force that can be hired in peak periods and fired in slow ones, the increasing informal employment is inherent to the current global economic restructuring. Through the analysis of earnings functions and decomposition of income differentials, the author concludes that the situation of female informal workers was disproportionately worsened after ten years of structural reforms in Colombia, given that they are subjects of a double exploitation, first, as an oppressed sex and, second, as a disguised proletariat.